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Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups / Proof of Life: Buffalo Meet-Up

Proof of Life: Buffalo Meet-Up

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From participant Zamphour:

From Left to Right, in the standing photo, are Smedley the uncertain, Groucho48, Our American Cousin 16 (!), mle, Zamphuor & her SO Bill, and Gelfling545 in front.

A good time was had by all (or so they all said). Was hoping you could post a couple of photos…
We all agreed that we’d like to do this again, so if anyone else is interested from the area, please leave a comment & we’ll try to set up another get together.

The weather was less than hospitable, so we were sorry to miss out on meeting dogmom & catpal. Hopefully they can make it next time.

Good-looking bunch of jackals!

Remember… if these pics inspire anyone, send me a proposed city / general date, I’ll put up a post, and y’all can hammer out a meet-up for *your* town, too!

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  10. 10.

    jharp

    Spent most of my life in northeast Ohio and I always liked Buffalo. Though man can it snow there.

    And for those who haven’t yet visited nearby Niagara Falls you are missing out. It’s very cool.

  13. 13.

    Cermet

    I just knew that Lincoln was a fellow Jackal! Where else but here at BJ would he feel comfortable being surrounded by fellow thinkers.

  17. 17.

    germy

    Question for cat people here:

    Those little tubes of “hairball remedy” you see in the supermarket, next to the cat food. Are they safe and effective?

    The little girl just threw up again. A big one.

  21. 21.

    Spanky

    @germy: Is it a cigar-shaped lump of hair? Just making sure it’s really hair she’s throwing up.

    Call your vet with the brand name and check. They should be able to tell you immediately, and with some authority.

  23. 23.

    germy

    @Spanky: Yes, cigar shaped.

    She’s allowed me to brush her. She puts up with it for about half a minute before the claws come out.

    I assume she’s shedding her winter coat.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    Love these BJ meetup pics!

    I’d happily attend one if I could ever talk any of the other Yinzers into one. But I’ve suggested it for years now and no one ever takes me up on it.

    Oh well. At least I’ve had Cole as guest at my house, even if he did spend a lot of his time outside, away from me, John, Devin, Koda and Lovey.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    @Spanky:
    They were a very different party in Abe’s day. Nowadays he’d be an ex-Republican like John Cole.

  31. 31.

    Tazj

    I’m sorry(for myself), that I couldn’t make it for the meet-up. What a fine looking group! Maybe next time I can swing it.

    @germy: I hope your kitty feels better. I used something that I got at the grocery store for a previous cat and it was fine, but it’s probably better as Spanky says to check with your vet.

  33. 33.

    Cermet

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Me either on organizing skills; I almost went to the last Jackal meeting in/near DC but was beaten down by the traffic – i.e. wimped out due to fear of not finding parking.

    Lincoln today, would be, and so now is, a democrat in both heart and thinking; more than that, he’d be a proud Jackal once reading most the posters here (excluding my rant’s, of course.)

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    @germy: I tried Vaseline, coconut oil and olive oil, but none were as effective as Laxatone. We give it to her once a week. She had massive hairball related obstruction about 5 years ago, and it had to be surgically removed. After that the vet suggested Laxatone, every week. So far it has worked.

    ETA: Both Petsmart and my locally owned pet store carries Laxatone. But Amazon sells it for half the price compared to those two stores.

  43. 43.

    Catherine D.

    @germy: My vet recommended a quarter teaspoon of Mirralax mixed into canned food once a day for hairballs, and it’s worked really well. Since it’s a stool softener, the hair just passes through.

  47. 47.

    CaseyL

    Fun group! Love how you got Abe to pose with you; was JFK too shy?

    Re Hairballs: My standby has always been Petromalt. Unfortunately, it is not my kitties’ standby. All my previous cats loved it so much I called it Kitty Candy, but the current two don’t like it. So I brush them… when they let me.

  53. 53.

    Jay

    @germy:

    Squirt about half a teaspoon of vasoline down the cat’s throat, ( when they first start trying to hack up a hairball). On short hair cats it’s ususally good for 3 or more months, longhairs, less.

    The hairball comes out with other stuff in tiny pieces in the litterbox.

  54. 54.

    HRA

    Great photos, fellow Buffalo people! I am now sure that I have never been to that place. I once lived close to the Elmwood strip and went there more often.
    Yes, the nasty weather stopped me from coming out to our meetup.

    For those who mentioned wanting to come to Buffalo, you have to come in the summer to see our new waterfront and always make plans to go to see Niagara Falls. Mr A. and I went once a week to the Falls on both sides when we were dating. .

  55. 55.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @germy: I used to use butter or Vaseline for the late lamented Mister Dairy Junkie to prevent hairballs, but that was pre-Internet days. Mister Dairy Junkie didn’t care that much for the Vaseline but he would lick it off his paws in order to get rid of it.

  56. 56.

    Aleta

    Speaking of Lincoln, this is funny (if you think it is):

    karen han
    ‏@karenyhan
    daniel day-lewis is on my train and casually just looking at his flip phone

  58. 58.

    efgoldman

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    I used to use butter or Vaseline for the late lamented Mister Dairy

    We haven’t had so much fun in a thread since Cole got injured shaving his cat’s ass

  59. 59.

    catpal

    Sorry I missed this meetup – weather, power outages, work happened. What a great group and Yes please plan another meetup – I would really like to meet all of you!

  60. 60.

    Jay

    @germy:

    BTW, set aside time to brush them every day. Pet them first, brush them ’till they get cranky, ( chin and ear brushes reduces the crankyness), put the brush away, pet them some more, call it a day.

    Each day it will get longer and longer.

    A friend of ours had a matted, antisocial cat, she had to leave with us for 6 months, ( it would attack people). I pinned it down and started brushing it every time it came near me, stopping only when it was really agitated, and not just trying to intimidate me.

    It stopped attacking people, became a matless longhaired, and would come up on the couch for pats and brushing when I watched TV in the evenings.

  61. 61.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @efgoldman: one dollop of Vaseline on the cat’s lower leg maybe once a month, although Mister Dairy Junkie was a short-haired cat so he didn’t need to be treated that often. He would also eat grass when he went outside and invariably vomit from that. Crazy cat. I still miss him – he died when I went off to grad school, like he knew I wasn’t coming back.

  62. 62.

    TomatoQueen

    Laxatone comes in chew form also, for those cats who don’t like the gel. I get them from Chewy’s. Luca, an ill-tempered mackerel tabby, gets one every morning crumbled into his food (Sheba chicken, grain-free, also from Chewy’s.). Luca also has issues with being brushed, but responds well to several passes with the fake Furminator (eBay this time) twice a week–sheds like mad year round and has a coarse topcoat.

  64. 64.

    Dog Mom

    I regret missing the gathering too – I’m usually not wimpy about the weather, but the wind was pretty darned intense yesterday. I’m good for another time – this winter can’t last forever. . .

  65. 65.

    Groucho48

    I think we all had a good time and I’d be happy for another meet up. Maybe we could get JFK to join us next time.

  66. 66.

    Zamphuor

    Thank you Anne Laurie for posting our pix, it was a fun evening.

    Side note to mle, your gloves are at the restaurant, they are holding them for you :)

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